[spald]

Its been about 3 years, so I'm going by memory here as well. Have there been any significant changes to brd?
What I remember (and I dealt mostly in xp/merit parties), is:
1) string instruments were kind of crappy and only useful for large AoE support spells (Nurse's Harpe wasn't better than Mary's horn). Has SE changed the dynamics any and made string stick on mobs better?
2) merit parties either wanted minuetx2 or minuet+mambo (and with dual yield /nin seemingly dead, this maybe different).
3) any new useful songs? the merit songs don't look extremely useful, although a couple of those merit abilities kinda do.
4) brd still pulls with carnage elegy, and /nin is still a good subjob when rdm isn't stressed?
5) When I left, brd gear was either af1/2 and a hodgepodge of AH'able gear. Now it looks to be all rare/ex sets (which of course I don't have having been gone). How bad would I be with just that old stuff? (or can brd still go naked with instruments to merit ^^).
6) Elemental staves are still the way to go for main weapons? I'm sure this one hasn't changed.
7) +stat songs are still relatively useless, and situational at best? (again, not sure with the new changes to dex, str, ect. calculations).

Thanks, and sorry for all the questions. If there have been any other big changes that I forgot to ask, could you please mention them?

[spald]

Just noticed I missed a similar question below that answers some of my questions, but not all.

[Deo2]

1) string instruments, nothing has changed. An all blm party still consists of wandering toddlers. If you're trying to sleep a spread out group, you better use a harp. A good money ISNM (ToAU BCNM) is absolutely reliant on you for that.

2) merit parties, mambo? the evasion song? Never heard of that being requested. Here it's either Minuetx2 or Min+March. If you pull a thf type monster, they start asking for Madrigal over March.

3) any new useful songs? Nope.
- just 1 merit in Nightengale and Troubadour is all you need for a 2hr song-swap between 3 parties before a Zerg (Rush the Boss at top strength with 6 songs from 3 bards).

4) brd still pulls with carnage elegy, and /nin is still a good subjob when rdm isn't stressed?
- /nin is now the standard, elegy is fine, but now we can purchase a boomerang for longer pulls with less spell-lock and more speed. The rdm should never be stressed unless you're partying with multi-hit weapon user aka Ridil War, Kracken Club Rng, Soboro Sam (None of which gain much from /nin Subtle Blow).

5) No one still cares, but they will be impressed if you have a Yigit or a Sha'ir Manteel for songcast -10ish% as your job is just to pull as quick as possible and have a sleeping monster ready after the previous one dies.

6) Elemental staves are still the way to go for main weapons? I'm sure this one hasn't changed.
- In the last update, you can create a dagger with -5% songcast. So, in theory, you could dual wield these and either have a ghetto version of a Yigit, or throw in one of the manteels for a very nice total of -20ish songcast.

7) +stat songs are still relatively useless, and situational at best? Yes, but if you give it to an epeen'd DD, he'll beg you for it constantly even though you only did it cause he was out of minuet range on last casting.
- Piannissimo allows us to turn Ballad into a single target spell and do the same with the Minuet, but the recast might set your speed back a few seconds, so you were better off using the Etude anyway.

[spald]

You're right. I meant March not mambo.

It's interesting that sha'ir is so much cheaper now. I'll look into it until I can get yigit.

Is toau still the place to merit? If so, are they still crowded to hell?
Also, how do these 2h spike dmg parties rack up to the old war/ninx4 dot parties (for brds)?

[Deo2]

Indeed. The colibri are weak to piercing, so a polearm samurai, dragoon, or warrior drill through them blazingly quick. My personal best is chain 200, but I've heard people breaking 400. I usually have a mental breakdown at about 100 and have to start pumping up on sugar and techno to see me through.

Ideally, the bonus doesn't get any higher past chain 5 (looked that up on wiki just now), so don't sweat it too much if the chain breaks. Also, I've only done it on colibri camps. The alternative camps usually have something like the Thf Mamool Lurker, a Wyvern's paralyze AoE/heavy damage, or a Puk's AoE knockback/flash to break chains significantly more haphazardly.

As for crowded camps, yeah. In order to hit the high chains, you're kinda forced to steal from other parties anyway. In a perfect setup, a single section of greater colibris will respawn before the end of your last kill. Unfortunately, too much DD power, too little, or heavy WS spam/overkill will send you off to other camps.

[spald]

I left after toau was out, but when I left I remember getting chains in the 500+ range (multiple ridills and such helped) when camps were open. It now seems that polearms are leading to kills so fast that you clear zones and that's a problem. I doubt the xp/hr is lower, but I still bet that's a pain for the brd if you aren't even have time to cast a song between pulls.

[_Vivik_]

1) string instruments: only for ballad in blm pt
2) merit parties either wanted minuetx2 or minuet+mambo: March and Minuet or Acc(depend on set up)
3) any new useful songs? Nope!
4) brd still pulls with carnage elegy, and /nin is still a good sub job when rdm isn't stressed?
-/nin merit only, pull with elegy(could be a life saver if you miss sleep)
5) Must have are: Nerd Rings, Yigit body, Wind torque. Then Af +1 hands, legs, Relic Head. And ones you may find hard to get: Sea Cape, Limbus earings, Nuhn feet, Mini. ring! Instruments get the +2 to songs!
6) Elemental staves are still the way to go for main weapons? pretty much, chanters for buffs, ele for rest, get a earth grip!
Don’t bother with dagger if u have M.Ring(yellow hp) and yigit that's 35% song fast cast, should be plenty!
7) +stat songs are still relatively useless, and situational at best? trash, unless a mnk wants mnd+ for chi!

bla bla... bet that's a pain for the brd if you aren't even have time to cast a song between pulls.

If you are running low on time, you must be going at it all wrong.
In a usual merit I have plenty of time to buff melee, pull, buff mage,
pull, exe. Only time a problem comes about is when the melee are to
dull to move 3 feet to be in melee range of the slept mob, or forget
to voke so a birdie is chasing me as am running to pull!